Well congratulations in advance on your upcoming nuptials. Almost all of the positives and negatives associated with Married Filing Jointly ("MFJ") versus Married Filing Separately ("MFS") are associated with filing as MFS.
They include, but are not limited to:
- If you file as MFS, you are often automatically disqualified from the American Opportunity Tax Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit; the Earned Income Tax Credit (which in your case your incomes exceed the limit of the credit.); the Credit for adoption expenses; and most likely the Child and Dependent Care Credit.
- Separate filers usually get a smaller IRA contribution deduction.
- Couples who file separate returns can't take the student loan interest deduction.
- The capital loss deduction limit is $1,500 each when filing separately, vs $3,000 on a joint return.
With the incomes in your questions of $90K and $45K if you used MFS you most likely would pay more overall in taxes. This is due to the tax brackets for MFS being half of the MFJ tax brackets.
Your fiancée if he currently itemizes deductions, since he owns the home, could continue to itemize deductions when using MFS, but you would also have to itemize deductions as well.
There are two circumstances under which MFS would be better and neither is a tax reason. The first is separated finances, which are often associated with a pending divorce. The other is student loan debt. This is a good article to look at that is a Department of Education article: 4 Things to Know About Marriage and Student Loan Debt
Congratulations and best of luck @Lola1234
All the best,
Marc T.
TurboTax Live Expert
27 Years of Experience Helping Clients
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